Using Facebook to compliment the Forum.

Owwmykneecap

Hey all,

It's pretty clear that this forum is dying.
In part due to the age of SFIV, and the players dropping out of visibility, and in part due to SF V maybe not having the same regenerative effect.
However Celtic throwdown (great job btw!)just occurred with very positive numbers as i understand.

But the leading reason imo, is the move to social media.
This is true for FG communities as a whole, and as far as I understand boards.ie itself.

I'm firmly of the opinion this is bad for the community.

Facebook, is an incredibly important tool for the community, but it is not a 1:1 analogous replacement for the forum.

Detailed in depth topics and real discussion aren't viable on Facebook.
Real discussion specially with new members would buy people into the community on a long term basis hopefully.

What can we do to encourage the use of the forum and facebook?
Should we even bother?

Imo, events of any scale, casuals - monthlys - majors etc, need to get a forum topic, with a detailed OP, and then this should be posted on the facebook page, linking the viewer of the post with the forum, and the information in a better format than facebook allows. While of course continuing to engage on the FB page.

Similarly News topics, can be created here then posted on FB where they would also be discussed but would drive views and sign ups here.

What are your opinions?
I suppose ultimately I do believe the permanence of a forum serves as the bedrock of a community, which is becoming more disparate, and i want to protect that.

chopperbyrne

Twitter and Discord have essentially killed off forums.

If you check character specific forums on SRK or dustloop, a lot of them either have one thread with a link to the Discord group, or aborted threads, where people just kept asking for the Discord group.

EDIT: However I do very much agree, that every event should get a sticked thread until after the event finishes, that is kept regularly updated with new info.

Doctor DooM

This forum will probably never be what it once was for the fighting game community in Ireland.

Simply, the landscape of the internet has changed. This used to be a focal point for all FGs; however, as has been pointed out, Facebook has changed that.

In some ways it is for the better, in some ways it is for the worse. If someone has a good idea, they can just make a group; if someone has a bad one they can also make a group too. Every group dissects the scene they're from a little more and it becomes a complex weave where once a single message could be easy to communicate. Yet it allows for mobility and for instant action.

It also brings in the issue of moderation. People complained about the moderation on boards all the time, but by and large it helped stuff get done, and everyone understood the rules. On Facebook, someone gets pissed off because they can't just do and say what they want, even if it causes a lot of damage, they can go create their own space and a split happens weakening everyone, and no one has learned anything.

Twitter and Discord too have taken parts of the pie; in particular I think the persistence of chat in Discord will hurt a lot of the dominant online spaces that don't even know it yet. The ease at which you can get someone chatting on FB and Discord compared to forums is a hinderance too to their growth.

That being said, if you want a good, threaded discussion, nothing beats a forum. There's probably still a place as the home of strong debate and gathering of information.

I'd personally like to ensure this is the case. FB groups become unmanageable at a size far smaller than a forum does. The choking of organic growth is the nastiest open secret they've got going, whereas Boards is searchable and up front. How it's done though will require more brains than I have on my tobler

gavinrossiter

I agree
As a new user to these boards and fourms as I whole I found it really disheartening to discover how inactive this forum is. As I'm new to the IFGC I was hoping this could be the go to place for me to connect to the community and be apart of it. It still could be there are still passionate people here who love fighting games. But to add my two cents, pining important topics to the top of page such as tournaments like celtic throwdown or even new developments in the IFGC would greatly help I guess revive this forum for me as it would be nice having one place for all important events happening in the community.